I love homemade burgers. Store purchased patties or even frozen patties have nothing on a homemade patty. There’s only two problems I see in making your own patties: squishing ground beef between your fingers and then having them fall apart on the grill. I’m not a big fan of raw meat and really working the ingredients together takes some work – but I’ve tried mixers or spoons, etc…nothing beats using my hands. And I thought second problem was inevitable when making your own patties – don’t homemade patties always fall apart?!

My sister-in-law came to the rescue when she was visiting one time and introduced me to the burger press – it compresses the patties into a nice shape that doesn’t fall apart on the grill. How had I not used one of these in all the times I had made patties?! Game changer. She surprised me after she left with a package from Amazon that had a burger press and the nice wax paper squares to go between burgers. Clearly, she’s helping me step up my grilling game.

Here’s my favorite recipe that we use the most often:

Homemade Hamburger Patties

3 lbs ground beef (I used 80/20)
1 cup of grated Monterrey jack cheese
4oz can green chiles
2 eggs
seasoning salt
cracked black pepper
onion powder

Mix it all together with your hands and divide into 12 even sections (for quarter pounder style burgers) Our particular press is a Cuisinart and it’s simple to use. Insert meat and use the top to press the burger. It’s not rocket science and I’m sure there are other household objects that could get a similar result, but this is easy. After the patties are formed, you’ll want to refrigerate them for at least a half hour to firm up a little more, this helps in the falling apart process as well. Grill to perfection.